Forget the presidency, Republicans should worry about losing the House

mentalfloss

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
39,778
454
83
Gun control incoming?


Forget the presidency, Republicans should worry about losing the House

Republicans need to start worrying about losing their majority in the House of Representatives.

Republicans accept the conventional wisdom that Hillary Clinton is favored to win the presidency, and they know that her election would probably end their majority in the Senate. But in a year that has upended political expectations, they have clung to one comforting assumption: Their hold on the House is secure.

Their majority is protected by gerrymandering, the geographic distribution of Republican voters, the power of incumbency and its own sheer size. Republicans have 247 seats in the House, the most since 1931. Democrats would have to win 30 to take back the chamber. And that includes many seats in districts that usually go Republican in presidential contests. That sets the House apart from the Senate, where to keep their majority Republicans will have to hold seats in states that usually vote for Democratic presidential candidates.

But Clinton’s lead in the polls is widening to the point that Republicans need to set aside their complacency. Split-ticket voting has declined over the last generation. If Clinton wins big — because Republican voters stay home, or swing voters choose her party, or both — House Republicans will struggle to win re-election. Henry Olsen, the co-author of a recent book about the Republican Party, tells me that an eight-point win would put Republicans in the danger zone.

Now it may be that the decline of split-ticket voting is another pattern this year will disrupt. Maybe voters will distinguish between Donald Trump and other Republicans, rejecting him but not them. Maybe Republican voters will come to the polls to vote for a third-party presidential candidate, such as Libertarian Gary Johnson, and then vote for Republican congressmen while they are there.

Public polling on the congressional races is still sparse. The most recent numbers come from Ipsos/Reuters, which found the Democrats with an 11-point lead nationally. That could be a sign that Trump is pulling Republican congressional candidates down with him.

Forget the presidency, Republicans should worry about losing the House
 
Walter

Walter

Hall of Fame Member
Jan 28, 2007
34,843
92
48
Another gooey Clingon. You really need that bidet. Denver Post, part of BHO's Choom Gang.
 
Last edited:
B00Mer

B00Mer

Keep Calm and Carry On
Sep 6, 2008
44,800
7,297
113
Rent Free in Your Head
www.getafteritmedia.com
What do you expect, Trump has hurt the brand.

 
EagleSmack

EagleSmack

Hall of Fame Member
Feb 16, 2005
44,168
95
48
USA
The Presidency... most likely... The Senate... Probable

The House... highly doubtful.

Probably brought to you by the same Demotards that predicted the GOP losing the House and the Dems keeping the Senate last midterms.

Kentucky is in play!
 
mentalfloss

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
39,778
454
83
Why do you think there is a concern about their party?

It's because of the association with its new leader.
 
T

tay

Hall of Fame Member
May 20, 2012
11,548
0
36
From The Ashes Of Bernie Sanders’ Campaign Rises An Army Of Candidates


The nation’s final Democratic primary contest has come and gone, but Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has yet to drop out of the race and formally endorse frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Instead, as many of his supporters wonder where to turn, he issued a call to action.

“We need to get people running for office at every level of government,” he told CSPAN recently. “Because what happens at the state level and the community level are very important. That’s what I mean when when I say we need a revitalization of American democracy.”

From deep blue California and New York to deep red Utah and Nebraska, Sanders supporters are answering this call.

Some are teachers, while others are barely out of school themselves. Some are young parents, some are seasoned activists. Some are aiming for seats in their state capitols, others are gunning for a city government role. As of this week, 12,624 people from every congressional district in the country have signed up through Sanders’ website to say they’re interested running for local office.

An additional 6,650 people have signed up to volunteer on a progressive local campaign. “This will be part of transforming our country from the bottom on up,” Sanders said.

Anderson said that whatever becomes of the Sanders campaign, they and the Democratic Party should do more to support candidates like him, and help convince to cynical young voters to stay engaged.

“We need to remind people that local elections matter,” he said. “What really concerns me are these ‘Bernie or Bust’ people who say they won’t vote this November. I just want to shake them. Do they know there are other people on that ballot? They are your neighbors and they can have a much bigger impact on your lives than the president.”

One of the highest profile “Berniecrats” in the country just won a local position in one of the reddest states in the nation: Nebraska.
Jane Kleeb, a Sanders supporter and environmental activist best known for leading the successful fight against the KeystoneXL tar sands pipeline, was elected chair of the state’s Democratic Party, easily beating out Hillary Clinton supporter Chuck Hassebrook. In that role, she hopes to recruit more women and people of color to “stand up and run” for local office.

“A lot of people don’t know this, but we actually have a very strong and increasing Latino population,” she told ThinkProgress. “So for us, it’s important to make sure the officials coming out of those areas look like the places they represent.”

Kleeb believes Sanders’ call to action will help this recruitment process. “He’s giving confidence to grassroots leaders, to people who have never thought about running for office before,” she said. “They’re saying, ‘I can do this. I just organized my friends to caucus, why can’t I run for the school board?'”

At a time when many Sanders supporters are reacting to his loss by professing feelings of cynicism about electoral politics in general and the Democratic Party in particular, Kleeb hopes to win them back over by focusing on the issues.

From The Ashes Of Bernie Sanders' Campaign Rises An Army Of Candidates | ThinkProgress
 
Angstrom

Angstrom

Hall of Fame Member
May 8, 2011
10,659
0
36
tay said:
From The Ashes Of Bernie Sanders’ Campaign Rises An Army Of Candidates


The nation’s final Democratic primary contest has come and gone, but Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has yet to drop out of the race and formally endorse frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Instead, as many of his supporters wonder where to turn, he issued a call to action.

“We need to get people running for office at every level of government,” he told CSPAN recently. “Because what happens at the state level and the community level are very important. That’s what I mean when when I say we need a revitalization of American democracy.”

From deep blue California and New York to deep red Utah and Nebraska, Sanders supporters are answering this call.

Some are teachers, while others are barely out of school themselves. Some are young parents, some are seasoned activists. Some are aiming for seats in their state capitols, others are gunning for a city government role. As of this week, 12,624 people from every congressional district in the country have signed up through Sanders’ website to say they’re interested running for local office.

An additional 6,650 people have signed up to volunteer on a progressive local campaign. “This will be part of transforming our country from the bottom on up,” Sanders said.

Anderson said that whatever becomes of the Sanders campaign, they and the Democratic Party should do more to support candidates like him, and help convince to cynical young voters to stay engaged.

“We need to remind people that local elections matter,” he said. “What really concerns me are these ‘Bernie or Bust’ people who say they won’t vote this November. I just want to shake them. Do they know there are other people on that ballot? They are your neighbors and they can have a much bigger impact on your lives than the president.”

One of the highest profile “Berniecrats” in the country just won a local position in one of the reddest states in the nation: Nebraska.
Jane Kleeb, a Sanders supporter and environmental activist best known for leading the successful fight against the KeystoneXL tar sands pipeline, was elected chair of the state’s Democratic Party, easily beating out Hillary Clinton supporter Chuck Hassebrook. In that role, she hopes to recruit more women and people of color to “stand up and run” for local office.

“A lot of people don’t know this, but we actually have a very strong and increasing Latino population,” she told ThinkProgress. “So for us, it’s important to make sure the officials coming out of those areas look like the places they represent.”

Kleeb believes Sanders’ call to action will help this recruitment process. “He’s giving confidence to grassroots leaders, to people who have never thought about running for office before,” she said. “They’re saying, ‘I can do this. I just organized my friends to caucus, why can’t I run for the school board?'”

At a time when many Sanders supporters are reacting to his loss by professing feelings of cynicism about electoral politics in general and the Democratic Party in particular, Kleeb hopes to win them back over by focusing on the issues.

From The Ashes Of Bernie Sanders' Campaign Rises An Army Of Candidates | ThinkProgress
Click to expand...

Feel the burn
 
H

Highball

Council Member
Jan 28, 2010
1,170
1
38
I think those worries are now settled. BUT... lets wait and see just how long the new "United GOP" stays together.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom